


Yeah, Luke Introduced you to Rock

by Only_Here_for_JatP



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26617882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_Here_for_JatP/pseuds/Only_Here_for_JatP
Summary: A brief dive into the mind of Julie upon hearing some of the music that meant most to her growing up, was originally Luke's and Sunset Curve's
Comments: 19
Kudos: 286





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just your friendly neighborhood grad student still avoiding her homework.
> 
> Anyway, that line sticks with me the most out of everything in the show. It feels so important, but they just don't really do anything with it, so I did. I hope you like it

_Yeah, Luke introduced you to rock_

The words lingered heavily on Julie’s mind for a few days after that. It was more than just the hurt and anger for the boys who dreamed so big to have it stolen from them so thoroughly. Their music was everything and to have a couple of bad hotdogs not only destroy their lives, but their legacy. She hated that their music was just as much a ghost, just as lost to the universe as they were until she came along.

Julie carried that bitterness, but also the gratitude for whatever forces had brought them together, allowed her to help bring not only them but their music back to life.

As she thought it through once more, moving through the same paths and feelings as she had for days, she knew it was more than just the bitterness and gratitude that kept the words so close to her heart.

Trevor Wilson’s, or rather Luke’s and Sunset Curve’s music, had been her and her mother’s favorite. It was their go-to pump up jam when they needed to get psyched before Carlos’ games. It was the music they sang loudly in the car on hot summer days wishing just for a moment that it could last forever. The music was their solace when everything went down between her and Carrie. Her mother had turned the music on softly, pulled Julie into her lap, and let her sob until she was ready to try smiling again. It was the music she turned to when her mom-

Those songs meant everything to them, and her brain was grappling with the new information that Luke, that her Ghostie Boys were somehow involved with it.

\---------

After getting home from school, she turned her mind to Alex’s words once more. She knew she wouldn’t get any work done until she investigated it more, so she plugged in her headphones and turned the volume all the way up. Turning on Trever Wilson’s greatest hits, she laid back in her bed and closed her eyes, allowing herself to drown in the music.

She’d been working with the boys for long enough, that after the first go-through she could clearly tell that they’d been telling the truth. Not that she’d doubted them, but she could hear their fingerprints all over the music.

The drummer wasn’t nearly as good as Alex, but she could tell that it’d been a reasonable imitation. It lacked that edge though that came from when Alex poured everything he had into his sticks as if he could beat out all the anxiety and denial in his life.

The bass player played perfectly, she couldn’t fault the technical skills of whoever Trevor had gotten to play with him, but it certainly wasn’t Reggie. His heart was the biggest of all of them and it showed when he played. It was as if the bass was an echo of his own heartbeat and it pulled the audience into the performance, blending a cacophony of voices and people into one audience.

After spending a weekend writing music with Luke, she could definitely say she had a rare insight into how his mind worked. How he came up with music and worked with words. It was like he could feel the song, hear it long before it was on paper. All of his music, even the songs written with her, were like a big red glaring sign, they were so uniquely his. All of his passion shone through, and the songs that had been stolen from them were no different.

Suddenly, her mind was replacing the sound of Trevor’s voice and his band with hers. She could hear her boys as sunset curve rocking out to this music. How beautiful and perfect it was, hit her deep in the chest and the impact of everything the boys had lost brought tears to her eyes.

\-------

After the third or fourth go-through, the memories came rushing through her. Except this time, the boys were there in every scene.

On the sunny afternoons, the boys were singing aloud with her and her mom in the car, Alex using the seats around him as drums.

On the rainy quiet mornings, they were curled up nearby on couches and tucked under blankets while her and her mom drank tea and read their favorite book.

They were dancing around the kitchen with her during late night ice cream dance parties, they were comforting her when she cried, they were holding tightly to her hands after her mom’s funeral.

In a way, they’d been there for every major high and pitfall of her life. Breathing life into her with the music that kept her going on the days she’d wanted to stop and give up. The thought made her glow with warmth, like the universe had gifted her with the secret that truly, they’d always been hers. Fate had always meant for them to be there for her and her for them. No bad hot dogs could take that away.

Yes, they may have been connected to her mom or to Carrie’s dad, but know she knew. _She knew_. That the most important piece, was that they were connected to her.

She opened her eyes, feeling at least a little, that she’d reclaimed their music from Trevor Wilson. Somehow though, she wasn’t surprised that upon opening her eyes she found three phantoms sitting around her room watching her with mild concern.

She smiled at them and voiced the lyrics which suddenly felt more important, more true than ever and watched the smiles spread across their faces.  
  


_And you’re a part of me, now till eternity._


	2. Been So Long and Now We're Finally Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do the boys react to Julie crying on her bed while listening to Trevor Wilson's Stolen songs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did this need a second chapter? No
> 
> Did I write one anyway? Obviously yes
> 
> Am I a little in love with it? 100%
> 
> I still hate writing dialogue, so I didn't
> 
> Love y'all <3 Thanks for reading

The boys had watched Julie walk past the garage and up to her room in a daze. For the most part, she always stopped in and said hello. There were the occasional exceptions, a rush on homework, family plans or Flynn plans. Sometimes there were days when Julie just needed to be alone and lost. After making the wrong decision and crowding her a couple of times in their concern, they’d learn to give her a little bit of space. Then they would slowly move in and check on her, where she usually met them with a hesitant smile, the occasional watery eyes, a deep breath and an invitation to scooch close while she told them everything that was on her mind.

This time they gave her an hour before slowly creeping up and knocking on her door. After receiving no response, they gave each other a couple small looks of concern, but poofed back to the studio to wait.

After another hour, they once again poofed up to her room and knocked on her door. They were slightly more determined this time having mentally and emotionally braced themselves for what they might find when they walked in. Yet once again they heard no response. Their eyes wide with concern, Alex slowly peeked in through the door finding Julie lying on the bed, music blaring through her headphones, her eyes closed, and tears streaming down her face.

Alex lightly hit his bandmates’ shoulders and gestured for them to follow him in, but quietly. Julie had started to find more cushy seating things to spread out around her room since the boys started spending more and more time there. The boys slowly moved inside and moved to their favorite perches.

Luke took the little soft stool and moved it so he could be right next to Julie’s bed and patiently began taking all of her in. Alex and Reggie pulled the bean bag chairs closer and flopped down onto them glancing between Luke and Julie. They were nervous, she was just laying there eyes closed, but crying. The way her breaths shuddered and the redness of her cheeks, she’d been crying for a while.

They settled in to wait for her to open her eyes and they watched carefully as more emotions began to play across her face. Somehow even with her eyes closed they could feel the joy when a small smile played across her lips, feel the small chuckle that she let loose once, the hope that poured off her in waves. Every now and again her hands would clench, opening and closing and a quick glance at each other let them know they all would give nearly anything to be able to hold her hands.

So intent on Julie it took them awhile before they really took note of the music she was enveloping herself in. Reggie was the first to figure it out, gaping at Julie and smacking Alex absentmindedly until Alex took note of it and shoved Reggie playfully. Luke was the last to notice, a look of confusion and shock enveloping him. The trio eyed each other for the next few songs, communicating without speaking about how different their music sounded. How robotic and unalive, yet they could see how much it was making Julie feel.

They turned their attention back to her and it didn’t take much longer for her to open her eyes. She looked right at them without jumping, as if she almost expected them to be there and she smiled. The glowing smile that made each of them light up and the words she told them, soft but so emphatically had them grinning back at her even if they didn’t get it.

She gestured for her boys to come closer as she sat up, pulling off the headphones and pausing the music. They moved to surround her on the bed even if they couldn’t touch and waited patiently. Her voice stayed soft and her eyes gentle as she wove them a story, her story, of starry nights and endless sunrises. Of little girls dancing around in their mother’s clothes on sleepovers. Of firsts and lasts and constants. Of sneaking downstairs and watching her parents dancing close around the kitchen. Of radio sing-a-longs and karaoke competitions with Carlos.

Her eyes shone as she drew them in to the story of her life in the small and big moments alike. And it hurt. The boys couldn’t bear to look at each other as the ache in their hearts slowly overcame them. It raced down their limbs and weighed down their fingers. This was the legacy that was denied them, that they were deprived of and it wasn’t fair.

Of course, it wasn’t the end of Julie’s story as three new characters took a new prominent place in her life. She wove a tale of bass player who gave the warmest hugs, the drummer who everyone trusted implicitly even when he didn’t trust himself, the guitarist whose passion ignited others, who inspired everyone around them to give everything they had to give.

Something else began to creep in as Julie spoke. The world may not know the name Sunset Curve, but Julie did. The world would probably never know the true origin of Trevor Wilson’s songs, but Julie did. They may never get the opportunity to play those songs, the songs that marked each stage in the boys’ development, showed every heartache and hope, but they had Julie. A quick glance, a nod and they knew. They agreed. Those songs were a small price to pay for Julie, for the Phantoms, for their new music. For their new (after)lives.

Still, Julie continued describing how she could hear the boys in every note and chord. They may not have recorded those songs, but they were their soul. Anybody who knew them, truly knew them, would recognize them in those songs. Her voice became even softer and she glanced down at her hands, fidgeting her fingers in small anxiety, as she added in their newfound presence in her memories. How now she got to hear that music and feel them being there for her, how it meant in a way they’d always been there for her.

The boys could feel their eyes widen in shock and soon warmth was washing over them in waves, replacing the pain. They stared at each other for a minute, before Luke pulled his mouth into a smile. He turned to look in Julie’s eyes before telling her that since these songs meant so much to her, she might want to hear them from the original Sunset Curve Trio. Her eyes lit up with mirth and soon everyone was dashing down to the studio.

The boys spent the next couple of hours playing all their old hits while Julie danced around her boys singing along and waving her hands in the air, basking in her own private concert. Eventually they all collapsed onto the couch and other seating breathing heavily but with smile and laughter twinkling in their eyes and floating around them.

Alex started to sing speak lost in the joy of being together

_Hands up if you believe_

Reggie continued, smirking at the duality of his reference

_Been so long_

Luke finished, gazing intently into Julie’s eyes choosing to whisper rather than sing

_And now we’re finally free_


End file.
